Arizona Right to Life drops signature challenge to abortion measure, will continue lawsuit

An opposition group has dropped part of its lawsuit against an abortion rights campaign but will continue legal efforts to keep the issue off voters' ballots in November.

Arizona Right to Life on Tuesday amended its lawsuit, first filed last week, to remove a claim that signatures gathered by over 180 campaign workers were not valid, and shouldn't be counted toward the minimum to make the ballot.

Lawyers for the group said in court paperwork they had “determined that maintaining the circulator challenge as articulated” was “not likely to prevent certification of the initiative.”

Arizona for Abortion Access, the campaign backing a constitutional amendment to create a right to an abortion, gathered over 823,000 signatures, more than twice what they needed and a huge buffer to withstand any such legal challenges.

Those signatures are still under review by election officials, as is required by law. But it’s noteworthy that they will not be challenged in court, and it removes one hurdle for abortion rights advocates ahead of November.

An Arizona Right to Life spokesperson said the lawsuit would still move forward focusing on the "extremely vague and misleading" language used to describe the ballot measure during signature gathering. The remaining elements of the lawsuit ask a judge to keep the constitutional amendment off the ballot on the grounds that its language is confusing.

Arizona for Abortion Access said it would seek to recoup legal costs related to the withdrawn signature challenge.

"We are confident that the court will see through our opponents’ flimsy legal arguments," a statement from Arizona for Abortion Access says. The group said it sent five emails to Arizona Right to Life disputing the claims before they were included in the lawsuit, and later, dropped.

"This demonstrates, yet again, that our opposition is willing to do and say anything — be it in court or to voters — in their attempt to rob Arizonans of our rights," the statement reads.

Reach reporter Stacey Barchenger at [email protected] or 480-416-5669.

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Arizona Right to Life drops signature challenge to abortion measure